​Bemerton HISTORY
preserving the past for the future
YOUR HOUSE
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Who lived in The Croft?
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The Croft is situated behind Cecil Terrace and accessed from Lower Road. The original building had several functions.
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In 1911 Samuel and Francis Brown lived here with their six children. Samuel was a commercial traveller for a builder’s merchant and their eldest child Clement was a boy writer with the Army Pay Office. By 1942 Mrs Hopkins was in residence and lived here until Margaret Phelps and her parents moved from 45 Lower Road in the 1950s.
Margaret needed a larger property for her expanding business, which retained its connection with the Lower Road property and became known as the Homelands Kindergarden & Preparatory School for Boys and Girls. Margaret remained principal of the school until 1970, when the property was occupied by Kenneth Cannon and his family. Later, it became a care home and is now a series of private apartments and houses.
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